The Telephone Historical Centre is one of North America’s premier hands-on museums. Established by retired ED TEL employees and accredited with Museums Alberta, its exhibits include working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches; outside plant displays such as poles, cables, splicing equipment and tools; as well as antique phones and switchboards from times gone by as well as an extensive cataloged telecommunications reference library.
Museum Hours
Modern society may take for granted what was once groundbreaking technology – yet this museum preserves and showcases its history with fully functioning pieces dating from late 1890s up to modern day, plus an impressive library on telecommunications history.
Tours of the Telephone Pioneers group – comprised of current and retired telephone company employees – are given by volunteers from this organization, eager to show visitors how the interactivity of phone equipment has developed over time. The museum offers tours featuring its working Panel and Crossbar Electromechanical Central Office Switch as well as antique phones and switchboards from decades past, outside plant displays with poles and cables, and cataloged Telecommunication Reference Library.
Visits to the Telephone Historical Centre should be an enjoyable educational experience that should appeal to visitors of all ages. With more retro telecom equipment than an early James Bond film, this cavernous space makes for a wonderful way to spend an afternoon learning and having fun together as a family.
Museum Admission
The Museum is open to both self-guided and group tours; guided tours for groups of ten or more can be scheduled four weeks in advance. Large bags, backpacks, musical instruments, scooters and skateboards are not permitted inside galleries; strollers and soft front-facing baby carriers are welcome however.
The Connections Museum Seattle offers an educational experience for anyone interested in the history of telephones and telecommunications, including antique phones, switchboards, outdoor plant displays including poles with cable splicing equipment as well as cataloged telecommunications reference materials. It features an operable Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch as well as antique phones. Also featured is an operational Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch; antique phones; switchboards; antique phones from years gone by; switchboards that work; antique phones from years gone bye; antique phones from years past; antique phones from switchboards from their day; antique phones from switchboards that work central office switches; working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches; antique phones from years gone bye; switchboards featuring poles cable and splicing equipment and catalogued telecommunications reference materials that span centuries!
Thompson and his staff don’t hesitate to show visitors all of the vintage telecom gear housed within its cavernous space, from retro phones and dialers to retro decorator phones and even an interactivity station where visitors are asked to hang two metal cans onto wires for telegraph signals or use crank dialers to dial dial numbers. There is even an impressive collection of wooden wall phones, rotary dialers and decorator phones from which visitors may choose from!
Museum Exhibits
The Roseville Communications Museum’s exhibits span more than 100 years of communications technology both locally and worldwide, making for an informative yet entertaining family outing, school field trip or sightseeing tour experience. Staffed by both current and retired Bell Telephone Company employees.
The Museum features an impressive collection of antique telephones and memorabilia. Situated within Jefferson Barracks Park – some 15 minutes southwest of Downtown St Louis – in a historic 1896 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places – it houses these pieces from its past.
Museums offer contemporary audiences an unique opportunity to connect with artifacts that span time. Their collections showcase physical instruments like Alexander Graham Bell’s liquid transmitter from his attic workshop as well as historical documents like advertisements and personal narratives that help us better comprehend the development of communications technology over time. Collections also reveal how objects travel globally via trade and cultural exchange forming connections across places and times; didactic wall panels (blocks of text describing an exhibition) help museum staff connect visitors with artifacts.
Museum Collection
The Museum Collection includes objects to help interpret and educate about its history, and also includes archival materials.
The Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum is housed in a restored 1896 telephone building and features one of the world’s finest collections of telephones and related equipment. This historic site includes working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, antique telephones and switchboards, outside plant displays with poles cables splicing equipment tools as well as cataloged telecommunications reference library; knowledgeable docents who are current or retired phone company employees offering their time as volunteers can guide visitors around this historic site.
Museums must implement effective systems to manage their collections in order to provide appropriate care to objects in their care, which may degrade faster than necessary. Such systems include developing policies and procedures such as SPECTRUM Procedures that enable museums to properly care for their collections.
